The ONLY measure of a successful podcast is audience
That’s right, it’s all about bums on seats – or buds in ear is perhaps more accurate.
I know, I know, it’s more complicated than that, right? I mean, how can a focused niche podcast (Shoes for Squirrels) compete with something offering global, mainstream appeal (Shoes for Everybody)? Well, it’s all about actual audience numbers relative to your potential.
Niche audience share.
I’d say that if you have a podcast all about squirrel shoes (yes, it’s silly, but stick with me), there may be 20 people in the entire world interested enough to subscribe and tune in. If your download stats demonstrate 18 downloads per episode, then it looks like you might have a major share of the potential audience. That’s a successful show. If your show is designed for a single solitary listener, and they listen, that’s a successful show.
The message here is to be genuinely realistic as to your potential audience and the percentage of that potential you can get to download and listen. For example, a tech show in the same style as, for example, This Week in Tech (TWiT) with just 10% of TWiT’s audience, could, when considering TWiT’s massive following, be very successful in its own right.
You may say that there are other elements to defining a successful show, but if you are realistic and honest about the potential audience for your niche, then the slice of that audience you can attract is the only relevant metric which can demonstrate success.
[tags]podcasting,audience[/tags]
So… how’d it go? Any reports? I ran into Pavlina’s comments on it as well and I’m looking for a good non-paid endorsement and comments on how well it works.
Cheers,
-T
Hi Tim,
Up to the holiday last week work had got stupidly overloaded so brain capacity for learning new stuf went out of the window. Things are getting back under control so I’ll be picking it up with some justo next week. Reports will be posted, I promise.
neil…
Factor in to the mix the ability to make a difference. For example, a music podcast with an audience of 10 who plays very niche music but sells 10 cds for bands per podcast could be considered successful. He/She’s making a difference both to the audience and to the bands, which was probably their goal in the first place.
I have to say I agree with your sentiments 100%
I was greatly heartened by Gill Mill’s comments at PodcastCon about the typical audience figures for a small-ish FM station here in Scotland. Turned out the tartanpodcast has a considerably bigger audience. AND it’s a global audience. AND it’s an audience that buys music.
Success or what?!
That is a good point on the CD sales, Mark. If that is a primary element of the motivation to podcast, say by increasing the awareness of unsigned bands, then acheiving it has to be a measure of success.
Good point Neil – it’s those who listen that matter most to me, it’s my raison detre (I’m sure that’s spelt wrongly).
There’s an element in me that does it for me, but it’s awesome to know folks out there WANT to listen. I love that.